Kjerrsgaard, Kesgard

Kjerrsgaard, Kesgard

Christian and Katherine Kjerrsgaard and their daughters, Katherine and Mary, took passage on a wind jammer and sailed from Denmark in 1862. It was nine weeks before they landed at Castelgarden, New York. Lena Driscoll, a descendant continues the story:

The young couple set out for the golden west in quest of a home. They traveled by train to St. Louis, Missouri, where Katherine bought a cow with her savings. Eventually the family joined a wagon train. . . . Their journey was halted near the present town of Preston, Idaho, where Katherine gave birth to a son.

In a few days, they traveled on and decided to take the shortcut down the Tim Goodall Hill (probably Freezeout), as it was called at the time, and across the Payette Valley to Washington. When they reached the hill, the wagon was roughlocked. Katherine, seeing the steep incline, walked down carrying her three-weeks-old son.

The Kjerrsgaards went on to Walla Walla, but after living there for a year, they came back and took up a homestead along the (Payette) river east of the Riggs place. Their first home was made of native cottonwood logs. . . .